The Court of Appeal on Thursday set aside the ruling of the Taraba State Election Petition Tribunal that nullified Governor Darius Ishaku’s election on the ground that he was not duly nominated by his party, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

Aisha Alhassan and her party, the All Progressives Congress, APC, had challenged Ishaku’s election at the Tribunal arguing that his emergence as PDP’s candidate in the April 11 election was not in consonance with the Electoral Act.

But having lost at the Tribunal, the governor proceeded to the Court of Appeal, which ruled that the question of whether or not a party’s primary was conducted properly cannot be a reason for disqualification.

It held that the case of primary election was a pre-election matter and also a party affair, which Alhassan and the APC cannot benefit from because they are not members of the PDP.

The appellate court also ruled that only the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, and members of the PDP who took part in the primary election can challenge Ishaku’s emergence as governor, adding that the most important question should be whether the appellant is a member of the party that nominated him and whether he was sponsored by same party.

The appeal court also frowned at the Tribunal’s refusal to take into consideration witnesses’ testimonies that the PDP’s primary election was moved from Jalingo, the state capital, to Abuja for security reason.